St. Justin the
Martyr

Commemorated October 20

St. Justin the Martyr was born in Palestine between 100 and 110 AD
to pagan parents. As a young man he attended various philosophical
schools before becoming an itinerant Christian philosopher. He
eventually arrived in Rome where he founded a school. He, along with
six companions, was Martyred (beheaded) some time between 163 and 167
AD (most probably in 165 AD). St. Justin is regarded as the most
important of the 2nd century apologists. His Dialogue with Trypho the
Jew, written about 155 AD, is the oldest Christian apology against
Judaism in existance. The following is extracted from this
dialogue:

"He [Christ] became Man by the Virgin so that the
course which has taken by disobedience in the beginning through
the agency of the serpent, might be also the very course by which
it would be put down. For Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived
the word of the serpent, and bore disobedience and death. But the
Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel
announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord
would come upon her and the power of the Most High would
overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is
the Son of God. And she replied: 'Be it done unto me according to
thy word".

Just as the Orthodox Church regards Christ has the New Adam (Rom
5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45), the Ever-Virgin Mary is also seen as a
type of second Eve, through which the Word Himself was born receiving
the recapitulation of Adam. The Virgin Mary's obedient submission to
the Will of God counterbalanced Eve's disobedience in Paradise. That
is, Eve as a virgin disobeyed God's Will by her unbelief, and the
Virgin Mary, obeyed God's Will by her faith.